“Our mission is to contribute to Africa’s development”: focus on the philosophy and goals of MBS Dakar
At the start of this 2017-18 academic year, our subsidiary MBS Dakar is celebrating its fourth year! After arriving on campus a few weeks ago, today the sixty-some new students from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon are today perfectly at home, whether in the Grande École Master’s programme, the Bachelor’s programme, or the various MSc programmes. Mr Franck Dompietrini, Dean of MBS Dakar, takes stock and looks towards the future of this campus with a humanistic mission.
Could you explain MBS Dakar’s mission and philosophy ?
Our simple and modest goal is to contribute to Africa’s development through teaching and education, not only academically, but also in employability and the values of its future managers and entrepreneurs. And at the same time, to optimise current managers’ overall performance through courses that perfectly meet their current and future expectations and needs in management techniques, operational excellence, customer satisfaction, social management control, digital, etc.
With a view to equal opportunities, the Africa Social Panel has a specific role to play. What is it, exactly ?
The Africa Social Panel grants scholarships so that brilliant and very deserving students can come to MBS, and it lets us perhaps show how often there are misconceptions about Africa, when its qualities – in particular the merit, potential, and general knowledge of its students – are enormous. So we organise one Social Panel in Dakar and another in Abidjan for those who have, of course, passed their entrance exam. The partly are partly made up of the directors of large partner groups, and they decide which students should receive the excellence scholarships by considering entrance exam scores, performance in front of the Social Panel, and an analysis of the social situation. In four years, we’ve awarded 34 excellence scholarships, which cover all transport, housing, and living costs, as well as enrolment fees, of course.
MBS Dakar is now four years old. What are its development perspectives ?
We have several goals. First of all, to recruit even more students from Francophone Africa by intensifying promotion in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, and by starting to advertise in new countries like Benin, Togo, Gabon, and Mali, etc. We also hope to start to grow in Anglophone Africa, particularly in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. Next, we want to continue to develop the principle of international apprenticeship for large corporations that have a presence both in France and in Africa. An example of this is what we just set up with Air France, and we’re moving ahead on this front with Allianz, BNP, Société Générale, Nestlé, and Decathlon. Last, we’d also love to launch new innovative products, like Summer School, and to think about opening a nursery, a business incubator, to promote entrepreneurship in Africa.
And what about continuing professional development programmes ?
We’re planning to expand our certification-granting and degree-granting continuing education offerings with new modules, new participants and new clients. We’ve already trained over 2,000 managers from large corporations in Africa (AXA, Bolloré, Nestlé, UPS, etc.), and that’s very significant, because 10% of the revenue of these courses is set aside to fund the African excellence scholarships.
Finally, MBS Dakar has recently undergone an organisational change…
Jacqueline Sommovigo, the Dean of MBS Dakar, made the decision to retire after four years of intense efforts, and we can only congratulate her. She’ll be replaced by an associate dean, Aminata Diagne Barre, who will take over after a transition of a few months, and I will take over the leadership myself in direct contact with our Dean, Didier Jourdan, to achieve the ambitious goals we’ve set ourselves.
